


when the battle's lost and won

by girlsonthetv



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: 20 Minutes Post-Canon, Gen, Shovel Talk, Sparring, Verdant Wind route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21587551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsonthetv/pseuds/girlsonthetv
Summary: Leonie has a girlfriend, and Felix, for the first time in a long time, handles things the Faerghus way.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Leonie Pinelli, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Marianne von Edmund, Marianne von Edmund/Leonie Pinelli
Comments: 5
Kudos: 57





	when the battle's lost and won

Felix’s eyebrows shot up as Leonie pointed her new girlfriend out in a crowd of people eating, drinking and being merry; celebrating the end of the war. “ _Her?_ ”

“Mhm!” Leonie drained the last of a third glass of wine, her face pink as a tulip. “I finally, finally worked up the nerve to confess to Marianne a few weeks ago, because, hello, we’re fighting Nemesis, gotta get everything out so I don’t come back as a ghost or something. She felt the same way, turns out! She had felt the same way ever since we were teenagers, and had been holding it in that whole time, which is so Marianne, honestly. Don’t you think?” 

Felix barely knew Marianne, but that sounded roughly on par with what he had heard. “So, the other day when you couldn’t make our usual training session… “

“Yeah, I was going on my first date with her.” Leonie smiled in a manner that might have been apologetic if she had been anyone else. “Sorry.” 

“You’re not sorry.” Felix huffed. 

“You’re right, I’m not.” Leonie slung an arm around Felix’s shoulder. “I think you’ll like her, though. You both use swords and stuff.”

Felix stared at the back of Marianne’s neck as she petted a cat in a corner of the room, holding a cup of some unknown alcohol. He had been in the same class with Marianne for a year and the same army for five, but they’d never talked an awful lot; he hardly knew a thing about her other than that she used swords and magic and she liked animals, particularly horses. That wouldn’t suffice. 

His father had always told him that the best way to get to know a person was to cross swords. Felix hated to think of his father, but that advice had never steered him wrong. It wasn’t as if they had a whole lot of time to sit around and chat over tea. The war was over, and people were leaving the monastery, moving on with their lives. Besides, chats over tea had never been his style.

After breakfast a few mornings after they had defeated Nemesis - which was such a strange thing to say, that they defeated a figure from myth and legend the same way they defeated every other opposing army - he tapped Leonie on the shoulder that wasn’t pressed up against Marianne’s and asked if he could borrow her girlfriend for a little while. 

“I don’t know, ask her.” Leonie turned to Marianne regardless, who shrugged and stood up, following Felix to the training grounds at a slower pace. Neither of them initiated any kind of conversation. 

They got to the training ground, the same as it always was, and Felix tossed Marianne a wooden training sword. She caught its hilt without blinking, unlike the first time she had been tossed a sword where she had fumbled for a minute before catching it by the blade. A year at the notoriously demanding Garreg Mach and the biggest war in living memory right after had made sharpened knives of them all. “Do you have anything else to do this morning?” Felix asked. It was a glorious day for training; the sky was brilliant blue and a breeze toyed with their hair as they stood facing each other.

“No.” Marianne said, looking a little confused.

Felix picked out a training blade for himself, tested the weight of it, cocked his head towards Marianne. “Good. Spar with me?” 

“Um… why?” Marianne asked, looking around at the training ground that looked sad and abandoned without everyone’s weapons hanging on hooks. 

“You and Leonie are in love.” Marianne blushed, and nodded. “I want to make sure you’re right for her. It’s nothing personal. Leonie is a good friend of mine.”

“She’s told me about you.” Marianne scuffed her feet in the hard-packed dirt. “She’ll be surprised it took you this long to challenge me.” 

Felix huffed good-naturedly. “Will you?” 

Marianne looked up at him, features set in determination. “If you want me to prove myself to you… I’ll certainly try.”

They turned their backs to each other, then took five paces. Felix whipped around a split second before Marianne did, and his sword met hers with a dull thwack. Then they began in earnest. 

When Felix had first transferred to the Golden Deer and Leonie had introduced Marianne to him as one of their swordfighters, Felix had nearly laughed out loud. The girl with the blue hair, staring at her shoes? A swordswoman? Yep, Leonie had said proudly, one of their best. If his younger self had cared to notice much about the people around him other than how good they were at fighting, he would have noticed the way Leonie’s voice turned sweet as honey when she spoke of her. Instead, he had simply snorted and declared he would see how good she was for himself. 

In the present, if Felix was a cat, Marianne was a tiger. She took her time with powerful blows rather than raining down several fast ones. What struck Felix by surprise was not her strength, which he had witnessed time and again, but the expression on her face. When they were fighting against the Empire’s forces or Demonic Beasts Marianne’s eyes were wide, but now they were narrow, squinting for any slip-up she could use to her advantage. 

“Are you getting serious, Marianne?” Felix taunted. “I’m honored.” 

He swiped at Marianne’s arm and hit her hard, making her wince, but that only seemed to double her resolve. Marianne didn’t flinch away from hits the way others of their army did instinctively. She took the hits and struck back with twice the power, catching Felix hard enough in the chest to make his ears ring. Marianne did not cut the most imposing silhouette on the battlefield, but this too was one of her strengths - she looked like an easy target, until her jaw set and her eyes narrowed and she and her sword tore the enemy neatly to shreds. 

Felix’s reliance on his speed was coming back to bite him as it had time and time before, Marianne blocking his strikes and lunging forward, forcing him to back up until he was very nearly in a corner. The upside to this - for him, at least - was that the closer Marianne got, the easier it was for him to slip past her guard. Over maybe ten minutes, he landed one hit to her shoulder, another to her stomach that made her gasp, and another to her wrist, knocking the sword from her hand. Marianne’s arm still swung out as if to strike in an aborted instinct before she realized that her sword was on the ground a little ways away. 

Marianne’s whole body seemed to be dragged downwards, her determined expression crumpling like tissue paper. Felix felt like apologizing, but that wasn’t in the rules of the game they were playing, one started years ago by fathers and brothers of girls soon to be married. One he’d played before, when Glenn was still alive and Ingrid was still optimistic. 

He put his hand on her shoulder instead, a show of respect for his fallen foe, and Marianne’s head snapped up to look at him as if he’d zapped her with a thunder spell. “Again.” 

Felix was momentarily taken aback - looking back, he really shouldn’t have been. “Excuse me?”

Marianne’s face was raw with desperation, her eyes wide, her mouth open and panting. “Let’s spar again, please. I’ll beat you this time, I swear it.” 

Felix smirked and nodded, for the game was never about testing Marianne’s physical strength. That had been proven to him time and again. It was about testing Marianne’s commitment to Leonie, if she would get up and fight for her if the chips were down. Technically, the game could be over now, if they wanted it to be - but Felix to this day has never been one to say no to a good spar. 

They take their places at opposite ends of the training grounds; the second verse, same as the first. Marianne spins around in a flare of skirts and their swords meet in a deadlock that lasts for several tense seconds. They fly apart; Felix tries to hit Marianne’s shoulder but she blocks just in time. 

It was much like their previous bout, except not quite. Marianne was playing more cautiously this time, Felix realized. She was waiting for him to make his move and reacting to it, rather than initiating. Strategically sound, yes, but she couldn’t keep it up forever. All there was to do was wait it out. 

Felix swiped at her again and again, occasionally slipping through Marianne’s guard and catching her with strikes that would have torn her clothing had they been using metal blades. Felix’s relentless assault began to slow, his breathing began to get heavier. He began to grow clumsy, and that was when Marianne began her offensive. 

Felix realized the move Marianne had pulled off a quarter second after she had done it. It was a half of a half of a Soulblade, a bright burst of light meant to throw him off of his balance but not hurt him, and throw him off it did. Felix staggered, and Marianne swung her sword in a wide arc towards his feet. Felix fell onto his back, and as he struggled to get up Marianne pointed her sword at Felix’s throat. “Do you yield?” 

Felix groaned, staring at the sky, feeling an odd sense of deja vu. “That was a cheap trick.” 

“I’m sorry.” Marianne said guiltily. Her eyes were like a puppy’s, large and dark and damp. “I just… “ _Needed to win,_ she didn’t say, but Felix understood.

Felix planted his sword in the ground and used it to haul himself up. “It was impressive. You’ve been keeping your skills sharp.” 

“I have.” Marianne looked wary, a child with her hand in the cookie jar, unaware that those two simple words bolstered Felix’s opinion of her significantly. 

“I thought you hated to fight.” 

“I do. When it isn’t necessary.” 

“So why not leave the fighting to the fighters, now that the war is over?” 

“Because… “ Marianne bit her lip. Felix watched her steadily, letting her take her time and consider her words. “... do you know what Leonie is going to do after the war?” 

“Become a mercenary like she’s always wanted to.” Felix said without missing a beat. Leonie had outlined this dream for him many times. “I’m going to join her.”

“Well, yes, and… she told me that there was a place for me in her company, if I wanted it.” Marianne smiled to remember it. Felix was thrown. Clearly, Leonie loved Marianne deeply, to offer her a place in her lifelong dream.

Marianne was strong, easily as strong as Leonie. Felix had learned that much. “Do you want it?” Felix asked, knowing the answer. 

“Yes. Very much.” Marianne said with a steely determination. Leonie’s beau had a spine of iron; not unlike Leonie herself. Not unlike him. “I also want… no, I need to be useful to her company. So I want to keep my skills sharp.” 

“You’ll be useful to the company. I have no doubts about that.” It was common knowledge that Felix didn’t simply hand out compliments, and Marianne brightened up. “You’re quite strong. It will motivate me to get stronger, as well.” 

“How… how will I motivate you? If you don’t mind my asking.” Marianne added quickly. 

“I’ll need to get strong enough to beat you consistently. In the event that you ever hurt Leonie.” Felix let a long pause make his point clear. 

“Felix… if I ever hurt Leonie, you won’t need to put in any effort to beat me.” Marianne’s voice was frighteningly sedate as she spoke, and Felix was uncomfortably reminded of the knights in Faerghus, ready to lay down their lives for their liege, even when he was half-mad and raving. 

“I’ll keep that in mind. Regardless… “ Felix offered his hand to Marianne. “I look forward to working with you more. It’s a shame I never thought to train with you sooner, Marianne. You’re quite skilled.” 

Marianne smiled sweetly, the kind of smile Leonie had fallen in love with, and they shook on it.

**Marianne - Survivor of the Curse; Felix - Meandering Sword; Leonie - The Blade Breaker II**

After the war, Marianne renounced her claim to nobility, and joined her lover Leonie and their mutual friend Felix in leading the group of mercenaries formerly led by Jeralt. Together, the three of them made a company feared across the continent for their skill. When work grew scarce and the trio were forced to consider other lines of work, Marianne proved herself a fantastic dancer.

**Author's Note:**

> first time writing a fight scene, if not ever, then at least in a very long time. i hope it turned out alright!


End file.
